When I was 6, girls had to wear dresses or skirts to PUBLIC school. You couldn’t wear “gym shoes” outside of PE class, your parents (and most of us had two) had to sign your report card every 6 weeks, and you wouldn’t have even thought about chewing gum at school. You called every other adult Mr. or Mrs. So-and-so and often didn’t even know their first names (or that they had first names).

Milk was delivered to your doorstep in glass bottles every morning
There were no supermarkets
Television aerials were X or H shaped and were huge
We walked to schoolPatrick Moore was my hero…...........well, perhaps he still is.

We were going to be blown up by the Soviets.
Nixon would die in disgrace (He didn’t, and was revered as a statesman and astute political analyst before he died in 1994)
Ronald Reagan’s being Governor of California was a fluke. He’d never win another office.

It was safe for children to play outside by themselves, and to go to their friends’ houses several blocks away. We had time to lay outside in the grass and pick shapes out of clouds. We had time to play – not go to practice, but actually PLAY – games (and make up our own rules if need be). We’d stand up on the front seat (bench seat, not bucket) so we could see while riding in the car. I’d sometimes stick my head out of the window to feel the wind, until the day I swallowed a bug. Girls wore dresses with sashes, and white ankle socks and hard shoes to school.

@crazyivan and @diavolobella, yeah, I’m sure, because I remember being absolutely shocked to see him on TV all the time holding forth about international politics on shows like Face The Nation and Meet The Press from about 1990 until a few months before he died. He wasn’t completely rehabilitated, no, but he could get in where he fit in, and based on his China triumph of the early 70s, that was international stuff. He wasn’t hiding in the shadows, snarling at passers-by.

Gadzooks, @worriedguyThey told me we’d have flying cars in 2001 liars!! When I was 6 the US never tortured people or violated their rights. When I was 6 the US Never attack anyone who did not attack us or our allies bah ha ha was that one shot all to hell.

There were no human-made objects orbiting the Earth.
I was living in Canada.
There was no Disneyland.
There was no Madonna.
Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper were alive.
Winston Churchill, Eisenhower, Einstein, JFK, and MLK Jr. were alive.
Rosa Parks was probably still riding in the back of the bus.
Black people in the some of the southern US states weren’t allowed to vote.
Polio vaccine wasn’t publicly available.
The Italian ocean liner, Andrea Doria was sailing the seas.
There were no movies featuring Clint Eastwood or Paul Newman.

When I was 6, we liked Ike, sugar candy was ok because the dentist gave it to us for being good during our checkups, mothers stayed home, and you could mail a first-class letter for 3 cents U.S. postage.

When I was 6: – I was in school. – John Howard was our Prime Minister (just). – I went to church. – Petrol was about 80c per litre. – I had never been to the city. – The last state in Australia decriminalised homosexuality (okay, I don’t remember this one). – We did not have a computer in the house. – 18 people were killed in a landslide at Thredbo. One survived. – I couldn’t reach the pedals in the car, but dad let me steer it around the lawn.

* Back to the Future II was an unquestionable depiction of the future.
* Everyone owned a yo-yo.
* I only knew one person who had the internet at his house and my friends and I came up with weird and wonderful ideas as to what the internet does. I think we concluded that it was some kind of friendly alien.
* We didn’t have a dishwasher to do the dishes and whenever my brothers and I complained about it my mum always said she already had several dishwashers (us).
* Girls were yucky [girls remain yucky]
* The lurgy was the single most deadly disease in human history.

I’m finding it difficult to discern whether I was very lucky or that people are exxaggerating but, being 20 years old, i’m part of the young generation and feel that the “it was safe to go outdoors etc” applied to me when I was 6. My friends and I used to play outside or at one anothers houses alot as did most the kids at my school, we would sometimes play video games or watch TV if we were being lazy or it was too hot/cold but playing in the neighborhood was the conventional thing and I grew up in a city.

Triceratops being a baby makes all kinds of sense, when you consider how many people make it their favourite dinosaur. Babies are cute. And that’s another weird thing. I can understand for survival reasons that humans would think human babies are cute. What’s the purpose of the same reaction to other species? Even ones we’ve never met before?

In psychology that tendency is often referred to as the Kewpie Doll Effect. I was thinking about that last night as I looked at my cat. I though to myself, “who would have thought that being cute would be such an incredible survival mechanism?”

@mattbrowne Unless there are new findings I’m not aware of, that isn’t true. While it was held as canon for a long time, more recent studies have shown that we continue to add new brain cells and neuronal connections throughout our lives.

“New neurons are continually born throughout adulthood in predominantly two regions of the brain. Many of the newborn cells die shortly after they are born, but a number of them become functionally integrated into the surrounding brain tissue. Adult neurogenesis is an example of a long-held scientific theory being overturned.”

At age 6, there wasn’t a thing wrong with playing softball in the middle of the street. Neither we nor the cars along both sides were considered to be in any danger. We rode bikes without helmets, and never went too far away to hear Mom call us in for dinner.